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How about Quark Xpress 4.1 ?
I've created and designed 100's(if not 1000's) of forms in Quark then simply
exported to PDF and from there in Acrobat 5 build in the fields.
Well yes, it is all about the fields. I am not so concerned with the 'look' of the form as Word or most other programs can give me that, but rather then ability to easily create the fields and associated javascript validation and such. Forms programs will easily be able to create a form from a blank sheet with all the built in tools that you will need to complete a form to the very end. Creating text and manipulating javascript is just not natural nor easy with Acrobat 6 as it wasn't really designed to be a form creation tool per se but rather a program to enhance an existing document with form capabilities.
For that, you will definitely need an integrated forms design system.
I did some rough guesstimates, and I got to a rule of thumb that if you have to create and maintain more than 50 forms, a dedicated forms design system pays off, because of the increased productivity.
I agree with you that Acrobat 6 is a real pain for forms work, even with the improvements brought in with the 6.01 patch. Acrobat 6 is excellent for debugging JavaScript and for testing, but I always recommend to do the primary forms work with 5.05. And (that is for Adobe's ears) I will keep that recommendation until the open issues are fixed ... which might mean until after the patch for the next major Acrobat version <g>.
As an interesting example though is the conversion of a Word document to pdf and the resulting wrap and such that happens when you make the pdf is the margins and such are not just right. Any and all conversions from one program to another result in another opportunity for something getting mucked up in the process.
Word is a case for itself. Word is NOT a layout program. Period. Word takes the information needed for line breaking etc. from the currently selected printer driver, which of course, changes whenever you open Word files in a different location. Now, there is apparently an option which prevents Word from doing that, but this option is buried about 5 levels deep in the menu structure...
There are about 3 or so organizations who are successful with Word forms, but they really do know what they are doing, and they all are working within closed environments.
So, these problems are not per-se conversion problems, but come from the original documents and teir platform.
Hope, this can help.
Max Wyss PRODOK Engineering Low Paper workflows, Smart documents, PDF forms CH-8906 Bonstetten, Switzerland
Phone: +41 1 700 29 21 Fax: +41 1 700 20 37 or +1 815 425 6566 e-mail: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.prodok.com
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Shameless Plug:
My next conference appearances and workshops:
• Training classes in cooperation with essociates Group, in Toronto, ON, Canada, March 9 - 12, 2004; more information at http://www.essociatesgroup.com/AdvancedAcrobatForms.htm and http://www.essociatesgroup.com/MultipleLanguageFormsInAcrobat.htm
• And, as always, available for on-site workshops/tutorials/consulting.
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